Five Things that Make Me Cry by Tanya Byrne

Book:A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness
I don’t want to talk about it. Don’t touch me.Song:Who Knows Where the Time Goes – Fairport Convention
As a writer, I should be embarrassed that I can’t put into words how beautiful this song is, but perhaps that’s what makes it beautiful, that there’s nothing you can add to it. It’s enough.

Film:Blue Valentine
There are dozens of films that have made me cry more than Blue Valentine – Titanic, Philadelphia, The Shawshank Redemption – but I was expecting those films to kick me in the heart, but I didn’t know what Blue Valentine was about so I wasn’t prepared for how it would affect me. There’s no manipulation here, no one’s dying, it’s just a straight up story about a relationship unravelling. But there’s the rub: the story is so simple – and so bone-breakingly honest – that I cried for hours afterwards. I still can’t think of the last scene without welling up. It broke my heart.

Book:Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
I thought I was going to make it to the end without crying, I really did, but no. I cried myself to sleep. A remarkable book.Song:Smother – Daughter
Again, there are so many songs that I could have added to this list but this made me cry the first time I heard it. It’s exquisite as it is, but add in the fact that the opening reminds me of Friday Night Lights and I want to wrap it in tissue and tuck it in a drawer so nothing happens to it.